Turtles-Paradise

I love this sky-planter idea. It’s space saving, self-watering, and ideal for those in small living spaces. However, it does come with quite a steep price-tag… so here’s how to make one yourself.

How to make an upside-down tomato planter
How to make an Upside-Down Planter
Go Green: Upside Down Planters (re-uses plastic bottles)
Upside Down Gardening

There are several ‘zones’ outlined in permaculture, which go from the house right out to the wilderness. The purpose of each zone is different, and our level of impact on it is also different. I want to talk a bit about each zone and how we can simplify the way we work and live within it, and discuss simple ways of bringing each zone in alignment with permaculture principles.

Zone 2

Zone 2 is generally considered the garden. It’s an area that we still go to on a regular basis, and that requires our attention in order to thrive. It doesn’t need to be the patch of land to the back of your property – it could be an allotment, or a roof garden. Generally speaking, it’s going to be where the bulk of your food is grown – fruit trees, vegetable plots, chicken huts, and medicinal plants will all be put here. If you don’t have a garden, it might be the deeper pots on your balcony, the window-allotment, or similar. Zones don’t have to be a particular size or shape, and it’s important we don’t prevent ourselves from growing due to a preconceived idea of what a ‘vegetable patch’ looks like.

We can simplify this zone in the following ways:

• Pay attention to the shape of the space, the levels of light, the average temperatures and amount of rainfall, and the type of soil – before you start growing. Grow the types of foods that have always been grown in your area, and don’t try and plant your favourite exotic fruit tree that is going to take lots of time and water to look after.
• Garden to your own level of experience. Start small. There is nothing worse than spending a lot of money on seeds, plants, trellises, pots and special soil and then watching everything die. A tomato plant and some herbs is a garden, and you can make food from it.
• Develop your knowledge of companion plants. Get the plants to do the hard-work for you!
• Share the hard-work with others – start a community allotment, or get the kids involved in the back-garden.
• Perform maintenance work ‘little and often’.

Think about Wildlife

Humans share this planet with a massively diverse range if other life-forms. Due to our overwhelming dominance and cultivation of land, we have driven a lot of these life-forms to the margins, shrinking their numbers daily. Some we outright kill, through serious pesticides that poison far more than just insects. For others, we simply alter their habitat until they starve to death.

Your garden can and should provide a place where wild-animals, insects and birds can live. Encourage the diversity of life, by planting things designed to attract and nourish bees, butterflies, birds, hedgehogs, bats and so on.

Attracting the right sorts of bugs can help keep other bugs in check. For example, ants keep termites away. Ladybugs eat aphids. Birds and hedgehogs eat slugs. Let a natural ecosystem exist, and you won’t have to worry about pesticides and fumigation.

Saving your crops

Of course, if you attract lots of insects and birds, there’s a chance they might devour your hard-won fruit and herbs. Having had last years cabbage plants eaten in their entirety by a hungry pheasant, I know how quickly things can get decimated.

The quickest and easiest way to stop them is to do the following:

• Put netting over young fruit trees and bushes.
• Use physical barriers like raised beds to get them away from birds like ducks and pheasants.
• Grow lots of honeysuckle, and put out bird feeders. Give the birds other things to eat, and they’ll not bother with the fruit.

If anybody else has suggestions, please let me know! Managing pests and predators is one of the biggest challenges in outdoor gardening.

There are several ‘zones’ outlined in permaculture, which go from the house right out to the wilderness. The purpose of each zone is different, and our level of impact on it is also different. I want to talk a bit about each zone and how we can simplify the way we work and live within it, and discuss simple ways of bringing each zone in alignment with permaculture principles.

Zone 1

Zone 1 are the outside areas that we spend most of our time in. It is not, necessarily, the areas closest to our house. This zone contains our most frequently visited plants, that usually include herbs for cooking and any kind of instant cut-and-eat type leafy vegetable. It will also contain seedlings and plants that need a lot of attention in the form of watering etc.

You want these plants close to where they will be used. Herbs should be on the kitchen windows, or just outside the kitchen door. Seedlings should be on a path travelled every day – maybe the front walkway to your car when you go to work, or maybe the path to the chicken hutch for when you go to feed them. The idea is to minimise the effort needed to utilise them. You aren’t going to walk to your allotment three blocks down to snip a few sprigs of rosemary!

We can simplify this zone in the following ways:

• Grow a limited number of herbs and seedlings. Grow only the herbs that you actually use for your cooking – Ferm has written a great guide on ‘Herbs to Grow for Ethnic Cuisines‘ As always, don’t just grab the cheapest mixed herbs container from your supermarket – instead, really think about what you need and use.
• Use labels for plants so you remember what they are! I also like to write down some very basic info about the plant, e.g. ‘water often, full sun’ or something similar.
• Pick plants that are hardy and flourish with the minimum of attention. This will vary depending on where you live, but plants like basil, thyme, coriander, and rosemary are good choices.

Everyone can grow plants in Zone 1.

There are many people who don’t have gardens, or balconies, or patios. You might not have space for a full-blown vegetable garden, but most people can find the room for a window box with cut-n-grow again salad leaves, or a few pots of herbs.

Growing your own herbs and salad leaves can:

• Lessen our dependence on big-chain supermarkets that import food from countries thousands of miles away.
• Decrease the number of ‘food miles’ we contribute to, and accordingly lessen our contribution to pollution and the draining of our oil reserves.
• Increase the amount of nutrients we get from our food by giving us extremely fresh produce.
• Give you control over the growing conditions of your food; lessens your exposure to chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and other nasties.
• Connects you with your food, and with nature.
• Provides a feeling of independence and self-sufficiency

Even just one pot of parsley makes a difference.

I got my two (subsidised) kitchen composters! They are excellent devices, and have several advantages:

• They eliminate my last major stream of waste that goes to landfill (food). Since I am lucky enough to live an an area with a great kerbside recycling scheme, all of my plastic, aluminium and glass gets recycled, and my cardboard gets composted. Since I don’t buy drinks in tetrapaks the only regular thing being binned was my food waste. But no more!
• They generate both high-strength plant food in the form of liquid, and decent compost to dig through my soil. I no longer have to buy potting soil and compost which eliminates an ongoing cost to my gardening efforts.
• They seal off my food waste completely, preventing access to insects that were using my rubbish bin as an easy source of food.

In short, they are useful and efficient devices, and I would definitely recommend them to anyone with a garden. If you live in the UK, you can check to see if you can get subsidised compost bins and kitchen composters at Get Composting.

With a three day weekend at my disposal, I’ve been engaging in a bit of a spring clean. Yesterday was the hardest part, deep cleaning my carpets. They look a lot better now, and because we shifted a bunch of furniture around we’ve tidied everything up a bit as well.

Today I’m going to clean the kitchen, and try and ant-proof it. We do have a problem with ants in this area, and my house is a prime target as it’s old, full of holes, and the roof leaks. Fixing those problems is beyond my capabilities, since it’s rented (we are supposed to be getting the roof fixed at some point, but who knows when!) so we mainly use buckets and live with it.

I’ve done a bit of reading, and ant-proofing would seem to involve:

• Removing food sources. Not only keeping all surface areas and the floor clear of crumbs, spills, etc, but taking into account the bin, not leaving dirty dishes lying around, and not storing food on counter-tops.
• Washing surfaces with white-vinegar to destroy the ant trails they leave behind.
• Putting down things they don’t like, for example salt or coffee grounds.
• Destroying nests.
• Keeping plants they don’t like; garlic, spearmint, and tansy (Wikipedia has an excellent list of Companion Plants)

So that’s the task for today – a good clean-up, and leaving salt overnight. I’ll also plant some garlic today, which I’ll keep on the kitchen windows. Not too sure what to do with the bin – we have a small wire-mesh bin that’s really intended for an office. We don’t need (or have the space) for a traditional kitchen bin, but a kitchen bin does seal food waste. I think I’m going to go ahead and buy a kitchen composter which will keep the food waste out of the bin, and provide plant food as well.

Anybody have any tips for keeping ants under control and out of the house?